This invention relates generally to the field of telephony, and more particularly to improved multi-subscriber interface hardware for the purpose of providing security and prevention of environmental contamination.
In a typical installation in a multi-tenant building, a building entrance terminal with 25 or 100 subscriber pairs interconnected thereto is usually mounted upon a building wall, commonly at a basement level. Although a part of the terminal housing is available only to telephone company personnel, of necessity, a second part containing the commonly used R. J. 11 plug is available to the subscribers who connect their equipment, and may remove it for testing.
Such a location lends itself to theft of telephone services, either by unscrupulous tenants who connect their equipment to the lines of other subscribers, or by those who make such interconnection without any legal association with the building. All that is required is the disconnecticn of a given subscriber equipment plug, and the connection of a telephone hand set using a similar plug in the existing jack. It is also desirable for telephone users to be able to preclude unauthorized persons from having free access to their individual telephone line. Structure for accomplishing this end is most conveniently provided at the location of a standard telephone wall plate outlet or other similar industry standard telephone connection device which contains an R. J. 11 or similar hardware. It is also desirable that such structure may include such circuitry as a maintenance termination unit or noise suppression and radio filtering circuitry most coventiently accommodated behind the R. J. 11 type jack.